Fusion v Fusion
by skca54
Summary: A rogue Fusion is operating in the Pegasus galaxy. They have come from a parallel universe and are causing havoc everywhere they go. Atlantis and the SGC have had no success stopping them and they need help. Can Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, along with their team, capture themselves? A Stargate/Kick-Ass cross-over. Based on my Forsaken Universe.
1. Pegasus

**Author's Note:** _This will my seventeenth (published) story and my second cross-over. As I have mentioned before, I was inspired to write these stories by the many amazing Authors on Fan Fiction who write Kick-Ass Stories._

 _This story is a bit of a stretch, but I thought I would give it a go, if for nothing more than a bit of fun!_

 _This story is based on my **Forsaken** universe. Characters from the **Forsaken** story will feature, as will characters from the **Stargate** franchise. As far as the **Forsaken** storyline is concerned, the events in this story fit into an AU future, approximately one year ahead of the current **Forsaken** story. As far as the **Stargate** storyline is concerned, the events in this story fit in after the end of Stargate Atlantis, with the City of Atlantis having returned to the Pegasus Galaxy._

 _As usual, I look forward, with some trepidation, to any reviews. I promise to accept any, and all, criticism. In addition, I am, still, British so my spelling and grammar may look and seem strange to some._

* * *

 ** _Cheyenne Mountain Complex  
Colorado_**

 ** _Stargate Command_**

"Are you absolutely certain about this, Carter?"

"Yes, Sir, absolutely," Colonel Samantha Carter replied.

"The IOA already think I'm certifiable; but they're _criminals_!"

"Vigilantes, Sir, there's a difference..."

Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill just glared at his subordinate.

"The team are good at what they do and will know the tactics the other, err, team would be using..."

"What does our esteemed Commander of Atlantis say about this idea?"

"Richard was not happy, but he'll go along with it. They would have SG-1 and Sheppard's team to support them on the ground," Colonel Carter replied.

"Okay, I'll get the approval of the IOA, but _you_ will get your vigilantes onboard!"

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

 ** _Chicago  
Glenview_**

I had just returned from taking the twins to school and it was time for some relaxation.

"Dave, I'm heading off to the Safehouse. You coming?"

"Yeah, I..."

There was a brief flash of white light and a strange sensation, and then I was no longer in Chicago!

..._...

I was in a large room with metal walls, computer displays and a very large window – was that Earth? A door slid open behind us and a man entered. He was busily tapping away on a tablet that he held in one hand. Dave was looking just as perplexed as I felt. My hand started to move towards my concealed Glock.

"What the hell just happened?" I demanded.

"All in good time, all in good time!" The man said, not looking up but still tapping away. "Err, could you pick up that device on the table?"

The man indicated a white, overlarge, PDA type device that sat on a table. I picked it up; it instantly came to life at my touch and I saw what looked like a plan of the room we were in and there were three little dots on the screen. One of which moved as the man walked around me.

"Interesting!" The man commented to himself, peering over my shoulder.

"Can we at least get your name?"

"Oh, yes, sorry – Dr Rodney McKay and you are Mindy Macready and Dave Lizewski."

"That would be Mindy Lizewski, actually," I corrected him.

"Oh!" For a moment, the man seemed slightly annoyed.

"Where are we?"

"You are on the ' _USS George Hammond_ '... In geosynchronous orbit of Earth..."

* * *

 ** _USS George Hammond_**

I just stood there open mouthed.

Dave was intrigued and he was staring out of the window.

"I know it is a lot for normal people to take in, but..."

"What? _'Normal people'_?" I exclaimed. "So what are you – somebody special?"

"Err..." McKay began.

"Yes, he is actually!" Another man said, entering the room through the open doors. "Colonel John Sheppard."

The man held out his hand; I took it.

"Hello. I'm Mindy Lizewski and over there is my husband, Dave."

The man wore what passed for a grey military uniform, which had the Stars and Stripes on his left shoulder. On his right shoulder was a flash that I had never seen before, but it said 'ATLANTIS'. On his right side hung a pistol holster with what I recognised as a custom Para Ordnance P14 high-capacity .45-calibre pistol.

"Good to meet you, Mindy and you Dave. Time for a coffee, I think..."

We followed the Colonel along several corridors. There was a constant humming sound, but otherwise there was no hint that we were on a – spaceship? Then I had a thought: shouldn't we be weightless? We passed through another steel door and I recognised a dining room, although they probably called it a mess hall, here. The three of us sat down at a table beside a window that again showed Earth, far below us.

Just as the Colonel brought us each a mug of steaming coffee, a tall, stunning woman, dressed in blue coveralls came in the door and walked directly over to us.

"May I join you?" She asked with a smile. "Colonel Samantha Carter; I am the Commander of this vessel. You must have some questions."

"Understatement of the year!" I growled.

"Yeah, sorry!" Colonel Carter agreed with an honest attempt at an apologetic smile.

"Look at these pictures and tell me what you think...," Colonel Sheppard said, passing over a folder.

I looked at the cover of the folder; it was covered in all sorts of dire warnings concerning National Security.

What was the 'SGC'?

I opened the folder and froze.

* * *

It looked like _me_!

I meant Hit Girl, in her combat suit, except that it was an older combat suit, from at least three or so years before. There was something else different; I was in a forest and the suit while still purple was covered in mud and I could see damage – fire damage?

I was getting more and more confused as I sifted through the photos. There was Kick-Ass, Battle Guy, Shadow, Mist and Jackal, but no Wildcat, Trojan or the others. Dave was looking over at the photos too. I looked up at him and he looked just as confused as I did.

I looked up at Colonel Carter who grimaced.

"Where do I start?" She said calmly. "The multi-verse theory of quantum physics posits the existence of parallel universes. An infinite number of ever-growing alternate realities that exist concurrently with our own. The theory holds that anything that can happen will happen, if not in this reality, then in another..."

"So you're saying that somewhere in an alternative universe there is a version of Dave Lizewski that actually understands what you are saying?" Dave asked.

Colonel Carter smiled before she replied.

"Theoretically, yes..."

"Oh, cool!"

"Who _are_ they?" I asked.

"They are an alternative version of your team; Fusion," Colonel Sheppard explained.

"Only, they are _not_ as nice as your team is...," Colonel Carter added before going on. "We have no idea how long they have been running around Pegasus, that's the galaxy where they are, but they _are_ causing problems, both for the indigenous peoples directly and also by upsetting the Wraith."

My brain was about to explode! Galaxy, Wraith, Pegasus...

"Okay, let me get this straight, if I may...," I began. "We have just been 'beamed up' to a starship in orbit of Earth and we are discussing alternative universes and alternative versions of Fusion, who are screwing about in a galaxy far, far, away, called Pegasus! They are also up to something with Wraith, whatever they are, but they don't sound very nice..."

"Fairly accurate!" Colonel Sheppard agreed and Colonel Carter smiled uncomfortably.

"Why don't you just round them up?" Dave asked.

"We've tried – they're just very good. They keep outwitting us..." Colonel Sheppard explained a bit sheepishly.

"We are putting together a team and we want you to lead it. We want you to capture the other Fusion," Colonel Carter said.


	2. Decisions

**_Monday afternoon_**

 ** _Chicago  
Glenview_**

I had to be nuts to be even considering it!

I was supposed to select members of _my_ team to go gallivanting off for an indeterminate amount of time to a galaxy called Pegasus. The galaxy existed; I checked Google as soon as we had been 'beamed' back down to the house. The galaxy was three million light-years away from our Milky Way galaxy. How on earth, were we going to get there? In that starship? How long would it take? There were still so many unanswered questions!

I had been given forty-eight hours to come to a decision and then to call a number on a card that Colonel Carter had given me. I looked over at Dave.

"We have to go, I suppose..." Dave began.

"What about Anne-Marie and Danny? We would not see them for months. I'm happy to risk us, but the others..."

"We would need Josh and Chloe, no question there. As for Megan and Curtis – I would like to take them, but..."

"I know, they're still young and... What about Erika and Hailee?"

"Somebody needs to hold the fort here; Hailee can do that with Kyle and the others. Marty would come as our technical support, but I will not force him; he has a kid now. Cathy might come; we may just need her medical expertise!"

"Okay, we'll get Chloe, Josh, Marty, Megan, Curtis and Cathy down to the Safehouse for a briefing.

* * *

 ** _That evening_**

 ** _Safehouse F_**

My explanation for the briefing left everybody open mouthed.

Josh studied his watch.

"It ain't April first!" He commented.

"I swear to you all that what I have just told you is the absolute truth, but I had a feeling you might need some persuasion, so I have asked somebody else to visit..."

I dialled my cell and said one word, "Ready!"

There was a bright flash of light in the briefing room and two people appeared.

"Fuck me!" Marty exclaimed.

"Awesome!" Curtis added.

"Hi there; I'm Major Jennifer Hailey and this is Dr Daniel Jackson!" The tall, uniformed woman explained.

Jennifer Hailey was to be part of the team. Colonel Sheppard had introduced me to her just minutes before we had left the starship. Hailey was to be our contact while on Earth. In this case, I needed her to provide some incentive that what I had said was the truth. I had not met the other man, though.

Hailey studied my team. She focussed on the two youngest members, Megan and Curtis. I knew what she was probably thinking and I had a feeling that Megan did, too as she scowled at Hailey.

"They may be young, but they are key members of my team, Major!" I said forcefully and Hailey smiled.

"I was a little surprised, was all, sorry, Megan, Curtis."

"No sweat, Major, we get it all the time!" Megan said with a smile.

I introduced everybody, explaining that Marty was our technical support and that Cathy was our medical expert. The man smiled and shook hands with everybody, as did Hailey.

"As the Major explained, I am Dr Daniel Jackson. Before we go any further and if you are accepting this mission, we need to talk paperwork!"

* * *

The non-disclosure agreement was somewhat daunting to read and it threatened all sorts of dire sanctions if we dared to breathe a word to anybody who was not similarly cleared!

It actually rather surprised me that I was about to receive a United States Air Force security clearance, me a vigilante and a 'hunted criminal'; Daddy must be turning over in his grave! Each of us had a folder to sign, although I would be signing on behalf of Megan and Curtis, as they were too young at twelve to be legally bound. Josh and Chloe were both sixteen, so were old enough to sign the documents themselves, even though they did not really understand what they were signing.

According to the documents, Dave and I were to be given the simulated USAF ranks of Major, which would allow us to be accepted better into the USAF hierarchy. Cathy was being reactivated with her USN rank of Lieutenant temporarily boosted to that of Lieutenant Commander (equivalent to Major in the USAF), for the duration. Josh, Chloe and Erika were to be USAF First Lieutenants, while Marty was to be a USAF Captain. Megan and Curtis were given the ranks of Second Lieutenant to be used only in the field, when they may need to give orders.

* * *

Dr Jackson collected the folders and placed them into his briefcase.

"We have made one concession, considering how long the mission may take," Dr Jackson began. "Do your kids know what you both do?"

"Not yet...!" I replied.

"Well, you can bring them along, if you so wish..."

"To Pegasus?" I asked a little shocked.

"Yes, it is going to be a long mission and it would be very unfair to separate you from two kids that you have only been with for a little over a year," Dr Jackson said kindly.

I was surprised, but also not surprised that they had done their homework on Dave and me. My mind was still racing with everything that had just been shoved into it that seemed to make science fiction turn into science fact!

"Now the rubbish is out of the way, we can get to work," Dr Jackson smiled. "Once you are ready, we will take you aboard the _George Hammond_ and we will enjoy a three-day hyperspace ride to the City of Atlantis. I will accompany you onboard and try to explain everything to you. There is a lot for you to take in and most of it will come as a shock to you. For example, we have the Stargate Network, which are stable wormholes, which transport you around the galaxy and between galaxies. Then we have the aliens..."

"Aliens!" Both Josh and Curtis exclaimed together, excitement in their voices.

They were both Star Trek fans, as was I!

"The Pegasus galaxy is home to some nasty races, one of which is dominant and is called the Wraith. They feed on humans; literally sucking the life force from them!" Hailey explained without a smile.

"Oh fuck!" Marty exclaimed. "Do I get to see some hi-tech alien stuff?"

"Everything that you need to," Doctor Jackson grinned as Marty's eyes went wide. "We will need to introduce you to the worlds, weapons and enemies..."

"Weapons?" I cut in.

Dr Jackson laughed.

"Yes, weapons, ray guns, all sorts of crap that I hate, but we have to use them to survive," Dr Jackson explained with a grimace. "I won't say this trip is going to be easy, it won't be. There is a big universe out there and some very bad people and things, some we have destroyed. We have found allies over the years and gained advanced technology. However, that is a lesson for another day."

Dr Jackson stood up.

"We await your reply, by tomorrow night," Major Hailey advised, before she pulled a small device from her pocket and Dr Jackson smiled.

There was a bright flash of white light and they were gone...

* * *

 ** _Glenview_**

The chat with Marcus and Paige had been animated to say the least!

Paige had reluctantly allowed Megan to go with us, knowing that it would have been almost impossible to stop her. Marcus was very worried, but with the limited information that we had been able to tell them both, he had given in. I now had the considerably harder task of talking to the twins.

The twins had no idea that Dave and I risked our lives most nights. I knew that they both approved of Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, but... There was no way that I was going to fly millions of miles away and leave my kids behind – no fucking chance! I sat on the couch in the living room while Dave went to find the miscreants.

The kids appeared, followed by Dave and they all sat down.

"What?" Anne-Marie asked, noticing the tension in the air.

"Your Dad and I have something to tell you both... We are not who you think we are..."

Anne-Marie cut me off with a short laugh and she must have figured out how worried I was about what I was about to say.

"Get a grip, Mom; we've known for ages!" Anne-Marie exclaimed with a smirk.

"Yeah, Dad!" Danny added with a cheeky grin.

I looked at Dave and he just shrugged; Anne-Marie was very intelligent and must have figured it out over the past year, Danny too.

"I suppose we have some explaining to do…" I began.

"Just a little!" Anne-Marie said, grinning at her brother.

"That is going to have to wait for now, but we are all going on a little trip for a while," Dave explained.

"Are we going far?" Danny asked.

"A few miles away, yeah!" I grinned.

"It'll be out of this world, I can promise you that!" Dave added.

* * *

 ** _The following evening  
Tuesday_**

 ** _Safehouse F_**

We had said our goodbyes, which had _not_ been easy!

Now it was now time to depart on our voyage across the stars. The twins were both speechless as they climbed out of the Jaguar.

"So, what is it like knowing that your parents are Kick-Ass and Hit Girl?" I asked.

"Awesome, Mom!" Anne-Marie replied.

"Can we see your combat suits?" Danny asked excitedly.

"All in good time; right now, they're packed!" I laughed, as we climbed up the stairs to the briefing room. I looked down at the mat where there was a large pile of bags, crates and other equipment. That pile represented everything that we were taking with us.

In the briefing room, I found several people sitting around talking. Josh, Chloe, Marty, Megan, Curtis, Cathy and Erika. On the far side sat Major Jennifer Hailey. She got up as I entered the room.

"These must be the twins; so very sweet!" Hailey said with a smile, which Anne-Marie returned sweetly.

"Wait till you get to know them!" I replied and Anne-Marie scowled at me.

"Got everything?" Hailey asked as she peered down at the large pile beneath us.

We had packed our combat suits, equipment and weapons. We had been told to bring a light load of ammunition, as they would have plenty for us at the other end in the relevant calibres. We had also been told that uniforms and transport would be supplied at the other end, too. The next three days were to be filled with learning. We had been warned to dress warmly as the ' _George Hammond_ ' could get cold in hyperspace.

I looked around and hoped that we would all return to this place very soon. It was my home; everything I saw, I had created. I felt close to tears, which was stupid; I was nineteen for fuck's sake! It was going to be an adventure for us all; but I was scared.

I never noticed Hailee standing beside me; she rested a hand on my shoulder.

"It _is_ going to be difficult. I remember my first time having this shit explained to me; I refused to believe it, but Colonel Carter forced me into it and I have never regretted that, not for a second!" She said quietly. "I'll be with you the whole way, Ma'am; you'll love Atlantis, too."

"Thanks, Major; I think!" I replied.

The Major checked her watch and right on cue, all our kit vanished in a flash of white light. It had begun. I saw the apprehensive looks on everybody's faces as they stood up. I gripped Anne-Marie's hand tightly; Dave had Danny. I saw Chloe t _a_ ke hold of Josh's left hand; she looked very worried.

Then I felt that strange feeling again as white light enveloped me and I left the Safehouse, with Anne-Marie.


	3. Hyperspace

**_Tuesday evening_**

 ** _'USS George Hammond'_**

I was back on the starship.

Same room, too. I looked down and saw Anne-Marie looking very scared; she was hugging me tightly.

"You're safe; I've done this before..."

Before I could finish speaking, Dave and an astonished, but similarly scared Danny, appeared beside us. Then came the others. Once Hailey had appeared, she waved us through the door and showed us to our accommodation for the three-day trip. Along the way, I heard a high-pitched whine and then just the normal background humming.

"We've just jumped into hyperspace, now that you are all aboard," Hailey explained as she stopped outside a steel door.

Hailey pressed a button and the door slid open.

"Lizewskis, your quarters. Next door, will be Marty, Joshua and Curtis. Across the passageway will be Erika, Chloe and Megan, and then next door, Dr Bennett. Sorry the quarters are tight, but we have limited accommodations this trip."

"We've slept in much worse!" Josh quipped.

"You can get something to eat in the mess hall, in about twenty minutes. Your bags have been placed in your quarters. See you all at dinner!"

* * *

Dinner was – interesting.

Danny had a few comments to make about it, which made everybody laugh! We also met some of the other passengers heading to Atlantis.

Two of them were Jeannie Miller and her daughter Madison, or Maddie, as she preferred to be called. Maddie was twelve and this was her first trip on a starship, too. It also transpired that Jeannie was the sister of Dr Rodney McKay! He had not appeared at dinner, which I gathered was normal; he was apparently in the engineering section doing something with the starship's engines.

I liked Jeannie and she had some interesting stories to tell about her brother! Danny, Anne-Marie, Megan and Curtis were now staring out of the window at the blue tinted flashes of light that rushed past us as we sped through hyperspace towards the Pegasus galaxy.

I insisted that everybody went to sleep early, as we would have three very full days ahead of us.

* * *

 ** _The following morning  
Wednesday_**

I was not the first to wake up that morning.

"Mom, this is _so_ awesome!"

I laughed at my daughter as I swung my feet out of the bunk. Across the cabin just feet away, I saw Dave fast asleep on the bottom bunk, with Danny up above, also still asleep. Anne-Marie was gazing out of the window at the constant light show that flew past outside the starship's hull.

It _was_ awesome!

* * *

After breakfast, we sat down in a large room and began our lessons.

Dr Jackson had appeared and he now pointed at a large TV screen.

"This is a Stargate. It was originally built millennia ago by an alien race whom we call the Ancients. There are thirty-nine symbols representing star constellations as seen from Earth..."

Anne-Marie, Megan and Maddie had drifted into semi-comatose states. Curtis, Josh and Chloe were not far behind.

"... When a connection is made between two Stargates an unstable energy vortex emerging from the Gate..."

"Whoa!" Josh exclaimed, suddenly being shocked awake, along with the others.

"... And settles into the event horizon, or puddle as we like to call it. Later, it was discovered that an eighth symbol would actually dial another galaxy and hundreds of thousands of light-years via an interstellar wormhole," Dr Jackson finished. "You all still awake?"

"That was awesome!" Josh said, staring at the TV screen.

Dr Jackson had to replay the Stargate dialling sequence, several times, as the kids could not get enough of it!

That took us to lunchtime.

* * *

After lunch, it was Major Jennifer Hailey's turn.

"The Wraith were encountered by the first Atlantis Expedition, several years ago, when the team went off-world looking for an alternative power source. Countless worlds in the Pegasus galaxy live in constant fear of the Wraith, who return periodically to cull their human herds. After taking their fill, the Wraith hibernate for centuries, watched over by Keepers, before they wake and feed again," Hailey explained. "Now, before I go on, the younger children should leave."

On cue, Jeannie appeared and took her daughter and the twins off for some fun. We had to endure some more, in-depth, lectures on the Wraith, as we would be the ones to fight them.

"The Wraith are a vampiric, hive-based species that harvest the 'life-force' of humans for nourishment through suckers on the palm of their right hand," Major Hailey continued. "The Lanteans first encountered the Wraith many thousands of years ago; however, the Wraith race is over one hundred thousand years old according to Todd. After arriving in the lifeless Pegasus galaxy with Atlantis, the Ancients seeded several planets with humans and Stargates. One of the planets held a creature called the Iratus bug, which began feeding on the humans. Eventually, they began to take on advantageous human characteristics, such as larger brain mass, bipedal locomotion, and opposable digits. Once awoken, the Wraith went to war with the Lanteans and fed upon the humans of the Pegasus Galaxy. This was obviously after many thousands of years because the Wraith had to become advanced enough for interstellar travel."

"Lanteans?" Chloe asked.

"Who, or what, is Todd?" Curtis asked.

"All good questions!" Hailey replied with a smile. "The Lanteans, also known as the Ancestors, were those Ancients who left Earth in the City-ship Atlantis and settled in the Pegasus galaxy. They were directly responsible for the emergence of the Wraith. After leaving the Milky Way roughly five to ten million years ago and arriving in the Pegasus galaxy, the Ancients settled on a planet named Lantea, and came to be known as the Lanteans. Finding Pegasus devoid of sentient life, the Lanteans seeded Pegasus with baseline Humans, who would come to call them the Ancestors.

"However, one of the planets seeded, held a creature called the Iratus bug, which began feeding off the Humans seeded there. Eventually, the Iratus bugs began to mutate, taking on advantageous human characteristics, as I mentioned earlier. This resulted in a hybrid species, the Wraith. For over a century, the Lanteans and the Wraith were at war with each other.

"While at first the Lanteans had the advantage of technological superiority and were close to defeating the Wraith, their carelessness allowed the Wraith to capture Zero Point Modules from several of their warships at great cost to themselves, which they then used to power a cloning facility allowing their numbers to grow a hundredfold. The Lanteans' near-indestructible ships allowed them to win almost every battle they fought, but the Wraith just kept coming. The tables were turned and the Lanteans began to lose both warships and territory. Desperate, they turned to extreme measures, such as Project Arcturus, an attempt to extract Zero point energy from their own universe, a nanovirus, and its successor the Asuran replicators. These projects failed with disastrous and far-reaching consequences. By then, the Lanteans were losing the war, and they knew it, so they sunk their capital city, Atlantis, into the ocean.

"In a final attempt at ending the war, the Lanteans sent a delegation to meet with the Wraith to negotiate a truce. The Lantean delegation was protected by their most powerful warships, but they were ambushed by the Wraith's massive fleet and destroyed. Seeing no way to win, and with every moral solution exhausted, the few remaining Lanteans returned to Earth via the Stargate, hoping one day to return, leaving Pegasus and her denizens at the mercy of the Wraith until the Tau'ri came through from the Milky Way ten thousand years later."

"What about Todd?" Curtis persisted.

Colonel Sheppard answered that question.

"Todd is a Wraith and a right royal pain in the ass! He is distinguished by a starburst-shaped tattoo centred about his left eye. He was named 'Todd' by me, after a guy I knew from college who was very pale," The Colonel explained. "He is a sometime ally to us; but every time I get involved with him, I feel like I'm walking around with a live grenade in my pocket!"

I laughed at that, as I knew exactly what he meant!

"You mentioned another word – tau, something?" I asked.

"Tau'ri is _us_. The word means 'first ones' or 'those from the first world'. It is used by the other inhabitants of the Milky Way to refer to those from Earth," Hailey advised.

"Cool!" I commented.

We talked in detail about the Wraith and what it took to put one down – I also learnt why Sheppard carried a .45-calibre pistol, instead of the more usual, standard-issue, nine-millimetre Beretta.

I considered upgrading my pistol for the duration, as did Dave.

* * *

That evening, after dinner, Colonel Carter took us on a tour of the starship.

We started in the starboard F-302 bay. Even I was awestruck by what I saw. Eight weird looking aircraft, four per side of the bay. I understood that another eight could be carried in the other bay on the other side of the ship, but currently other equipment was being stored in there; they did not elaborate.

Everybody was amazed. Marty could not stop asking questions about the four different engines that the fighter-interceptor carried. I understood it could fly in a planet's atmosphere, in space and even enter hyperspace.

We left the F-302 bay, heading deeper into the ship. We stopped at what they called the Ring Room. In this room, I understood, were transport rings that could be used to teleport people or equipment short distances, usually to another set of rings. They also functioned to transport people and equipment to the surface when the starship landed somewhere.

The next stop was Engineering, where we found Dr McKay delving into the starship's systems, including working inside some panels that seemed to be filled with long pieces of coloured glass. Marty began a conversation about crystals with McKay, which did not last very long as Marty was way out of his depth!

Our final stop was the bridge which was mounted on the back left corner at the top of the starship. As we came through the doorway, we could see an enormous window looking ahead. Behind that were three seats facing forwards. These were for the weapons officer, the commander and the officer flying the starship. Behind them were various areas for plotting attacks and so forth.

The kids all thought it was awesome; even Josh and Dave were impressed and so was I.

* * *

 ** _The following morning  
Thursday_**

It was our second day in hyperspace.

That morning, after breakfast, the twins and Maddie were taken away by Jeannie and we were met by Colonel Sheppard and another Colonel who was Major Hailey's boss.

"Hi, I'm Cameron Mitchell! I'm the Major's Boss and I am in command of SG-1!"

Once the pleasantries were over, we were led into a large room that was obviously the starship's armoury. Now _I_ was enjoying myself! I saw racks of P90s, MP7s and other weapons. Then I noticed weapons that were not of Earth origin.

"When we are off-world we sometimes take alien weaponry with us, especially if it gives us an advantage. For this reason, you will all need to know how to operate the more exotic weapons that we have here. You may also need to use a captured weapon to get out of a scrape," Colonel Mitchell began. "I've seen you all in action, so I am going to bypass the Earth weapons as I know that you can all handle the weapons we have here."

"We will cover five weapons this morning. The Ma'Tok or Staff Weapon, which is of Goa'uld origin as is its counterpart, the Zat'nik'tel or Zat for short. Then we will look at some Wraith weapons, the Hand Blaster, the Spear Gun and the Stunner Rifle."

"Gould?" Dave asked.

"Goa'uld; they are a race that we fought with, for eight years or so. I won't go into it now, but Major Hailey can explain it all to you later," Colonel Sheppard said, looking at Hailey, who nodded. "The staff weapon is designed for terror and emits a blast of energy. It is not very accurate and is difficult to handle at best. As I said, it was designed to terrorise and intimidate people, which was how the Goa'uld ran things."

Colonel Sheppard demonstrated how to arm the staff, but did not fire it. We each had a go at handling the very long and heavy weapon. I noticed that the opposite end was useful as a melee, clubbing type weapon. Colonel Mitchell confirmed this.

Next we were shown a weird looking weapon which was shaped like a 'Z', when folded. At the press of a button, it opened up with a zinging sound.

"The Zat is a hand held weapon. Its energy output is in the form of blue electrical energy. The device is believed to have been in production for over five thousand years. Zat'nik'tels are fired by squeezing the bottom curve where the gun is held. The Zat is unique in the way it works. One shot will incapacitate a victim and cause immense pain, while a second shot kills them. It is very useful when you want to capture somebody, alive," Colonel Mitchell lectured. "Dave and Mindy, you will both be issued with one each when we get to Atlantis. For now you can practice with them, but don't shoot each other; it hurts!"

We all spent the next thirty minutes learning to handle the weapon, which was a very new experience for us all, but it _was_ fun!


	4. Gene Therapy

**_Thursday morning_**

 ** _'USS George Hammond'_**

Next came the Wraith weapons.

"As you can see, the weapon overloads the victim's nervous system and they collapse, unconscious!" Sheppard laughed as Joshua groaned and rose shakily to his feet.

Everybody laughed at Josh. He had been shot with the lowest setting on the Wraith Stunner Rifle.

"I'm sure you can figure out why the Wraith would prefer their prey alive..." Sheppard said darkly.

The laughing soon stopped.

"They take you to their Hives and save you for later... The good side is that you are still alive, to escape, or to be rescued."

We all got a chance to handle the weapons and we shot Chloe and Major Hailey, plus Dr McKay, who just happened to walk in at the wrong moment.

Oops!

* * *

Dave and I were heading off to see the twins, when we met Colonel Carter.

"You two might want to see this, come with me!" She said quickly and we followed her to the bridge.

Colonel Carter took her seat in the centre of the bridge.

"Drop us out!" She ordered.

The blue and white lightshow ended as we slowed down and dropped into normal space. Ahead of us, we could see three ships engaged in a fight. Two, I recognised, having been shown pictures of Wraith cruisers only the previous day.

As we closed, the two cruisers broke off their attack and turned towards us, sending volleys of blue energy in our direction. We must have had our shields raised, as there were small explosions and a yellow shimmering, a distance from the starship's hull as the incoming energy was dissipated by the shield.

"Ready forward beam weapons," Colonel Carter ordered. "Engage the two cruisers!"

I was surprised to see a bluish-white beam extend out from the front of the ' _George Hammond_ ' and watched as the beam stretched out, terminating on the closest Wraith cruiser where there was a large explosion.

The energy beam had cut through the Wraith shields as if they were not there. Another beam emanated from the ' _George Hammond_ ' and struck the same cruiser, and then two more beams struck the other cruiser.

Both enemy ships attempted to dodge the beams, but they were not manoeuvrable enough. I was also very surprised by how manoeuvrable the ' _George Hammond_ ' was as I sensed us turning to keep the Wraith cruisers in an optimum targeting position. Finally, another pair of beams caused both Wraith cruisers to explode.

The attack was over in less than three minutes.

"We are not defenceless; we have some of the most powerful shields and weapons in two galaxies," Colonel Carter said with a smile. "We are not invincible, but we can hold our own!"

"Incoming transmission!" Came a voice from the back of the bridge.

A face came up on the screen.

"Larrin!" Colonel Sheppard said in surprise, as he came onto the bridge.

"Good to see you, Sheppard!" Larrin replied.

Larrin was a very beautiful woman and she obviously knew Sheppard.

"We got your emergency call, so we thought we could help!" Sheppard said smoothly. "I'd come over to help, but you'd only tie me up again and threaten me with unmentionable things!"

I saw Larrin blush slightly as somebody behind her, on the other ship, laughed.

"I promise not to tie you up, _this_ time!"

"How badly are you damaged?" Colonel Carter asked.

"A few people are banged up, but we've fared worse. Our hyperdrive is just coming back online, now that we've transferred power from shields and weapons. We've not far to go," Larrin replied. "Thanks John."

"No problem, Larrin! Pop by Atlantis soon, okay?"

"She will; she misses you..." A female voice called out from the other ship before Larrin really blushed and the communications were cut.

I looked around and Sheppard looked a little uncomfortable.

"What can I say? She likes how I fire her drones!" Sheppard said quietly before leaving the bridge smartly.

* * *

After lunch, we were all taken to the port F-302 bay.

Among lots of stowed equipment, we were led to a very strange looking green cylinder, about eight metres long and almost five metres tall, with sloping ends and a flat bottom. As we approached one end, I noticed it had a windshield! Inside I could see seats; it was a spaceship of sorts. We were led to the other end and found a lowered boarding ramp that opened up the end of the cylinder completely.

"This," explained Colonel Sheppard proudly "is a Puddle Jumper! Mindy, sit down in the far left seat and rest your hands on the control panel."

I walked up the ramp, past some benches and though a doorway into the front of the Jumper. AS I entered, some basic lighting came on. There were four chairs; I picked the furthest on the left and sat down. I did as instructed and as I touched the control panel, everything seemed to light up. The controls lit up and I saw quite a few buttons, including a strange array in the centre of the console.

"You have the ATA-gene! Rodney said you did; just wanted to check – that means you can activate Ancient technology, including the Jumpers."

"Dave, your turn..."

Nothing happened when Dave touched the control panel. Everybody took a turn, but the only other person who was able to activate the control panel was Josh, but only after a few seconds of resting his hands on the control panel and concentrating.

"Very good! Now, all but Mindy and Josh, please go with Dr Keller here, she will give you all the ATA-gene therapy," Colonel Sheppard announced and then it was just Josh and me, plus Sheppard and Hailey.

Colonel Sheppard went on to explain the systems in the Puddle Jumper. That included how to operate the hatch at the rear and where various items of equipment were located around the cabin. He explained how the Jumper was designed to pass through the Stargate, and showed us the DHD in the centre of the control panel. He also taught us how to activate the HUD and view the various ship's systems. I was also shown where the life-signs detector was stored; it was the device, which I had been asked to pick up the first time aboard.

He instructed me to deploy the drive pods, which I did, just by thinking about them! I heard them deploy on each side of the Jumper. We walked out the back to look at them. They had opened on each side and just in front of the pods I was shown where the weapons would be launched from, which posed another question.

"What does it fire?" Josh asked.

"Good question! It fires mini-drones – Atlantis fires full-sized ones. We have no drones onboard to show you right now, so you will see them once we get to Atlantis. You launch the drone using your mind and you can direct the drone in flight, again with just your mind."

That was _so_ awesome!

* * *

We were supposed to be completing a diagram of the BC-304 Battlecruiser.

However, I was getting bored. That actually surprised me; I was on a starship, shooting through space at thousands of miles per hour and I was bored! Maybe it just hadn't really hit me yet.

Maddie was cool; she was three years older than we were, but she was very nice and she was also on her first flight in space. She was annoyed that her Mother had never told her about having been in space before. As I understood it, Maddie's Mom had been to Atlantis once, some years before and had been involved with the Stargate program for a while. I was not sure about her Uncle Rodney, though; he was, I dunno – a little weird! I also sensed that Colonel Carter was not his biggest fan, either.

As for Colonel Sheppard, he was cool, although I thought it strange that he carried around a fresh lemon in his pocket and I meant to ask him about it, but kept forgetting. We decided it was time to do some exploring of our own and took our chance when Jeannie was called, well ordered actually, to Engineering by her brother.

Maddie pulled out a device from her pocket. It looked like an over-large computer game. The screen showed a room, with three dots in it.

"It's a Life Signs Detector," Maddie explained. "I borrowed it from Uncle Rodney."

"Cool!" I said, taking it from Maddie and studying the image.

As I moved toward the door, the image moved and I was able to see into the corridor and every now and then, a dot or two would move in one direction or another.

"Let's see!" Danny demanded and I passed it over. "Awesome!"

* * *

After we finished our training with the Jumper, Josh and I went to make use of the gym that they had onboard.

We had not had much chance to exercise since we had started our voyage across the stars. I made use of the running machine, while Josh started on a punch bag. Some Marines also joined us and they seemed keen to show off their muscles, while checking me out as I moved to the punch bags.

I could not resist a little showing off!

* * *

"What's that on the missile?" Danny enquired as he banged his fist on the eight-foot long object.

"It says: ' _Caution. Tactical Nuclear Weapon. Do not drop._ ' Good advice!" Anne-Marie said edging away from the nuclear weapon.

"I think we should get out of here..." Danny warned.

"Good idea!" Maddie replied.

As well as the Life Signs Detector, Maddie had also 'borrowed' her Uncle's access card, which seemed to work everywhere that we tried it.

Maybe the Armoury had not been such a good idea!

* * *

After receiving my ATA-gene injection, I went looking for Mindy.

I found her after pushing my way through a crowd of Airmen and Marines into the ship's gym. I saw Mindy sparring with a young female Marine. Both girls were dripping sweat, but neither seemed to be running out of steam, either!

There were shouts of encouragement from the assembled men. It was an even split as to who supported Mindy and who supported the female Marine. I could see Josh over the far side cheering on Mindy.

"That Fusion chick is fucking hot; I'm getting hard just watching her!" A Marine beside me laughed.

"Maybe her husband will knock you senseless!" I growled.

"He has no need to know..." The Marine paused and looked at me. "Sorry, Sir!"

"She _is_ hot!" I laughed, and then turned serious. "Just remember; hands off!"

I did not think that either girl was going flat out, but they were definitely putting a lot of effort in. After another ten minutes, the girls stopped and shook hands. There were a lot, of groans from those watching; they had wanted a clear winner!

Both girls grinned, knowing that they had wound everybody up.

"You two had fun?" I asked, pushing my way through to Mindy.

"Hi, Dave!" Mindy said with a smile as I handed each girl a towel. "This is PFC Kramer; we decided to exercise for a bit."

"Hi!" I said.

"Good to meet you, sir!" PFC Kramer said accepting the towel and wiping her face. "Your wife is a very good fighter, sir."

Both girls were of a similar height although Kramer seemed to have a heavier physique and was a few inches taller.

"She is that!" I laughed.

"Ma'am!" PFC Kramer said as she headed for the locker room.

"Thanks Kramer!" Mindy called after her.

I waited for Mindy and Josh to shower and change, before we went in search of the twins. We had not seen them all day.

For some reason, I had a bad feeling!

* * *

We watched as Engineering emptied; it was dinnertime.

"There he goes..."

Maddie's uncle headed off to get something to eat and once his 'dot' vanished around a couple of corners, Maddie swiped the access card and we entered Engineering. The place looked awesome with lots of computer screens and lights.

Over the far side was a door with lots of warning signs on it. Warning signs meant something exciting; at least I thought so!

Again, the access card opened the door for us.

"Whoa; that looks cool!" I said.

There, in front of us was a colourful looking object, which reminded me of a glass ornament. It was lit up and sat in a cradle of some sort, vertically. It hummed and was a yellowish colour. There were thick cables leading from the cradle that held the object in place.

"It looks pretty," Maddie, said moving closer, her eyes wide.

"What's a ZPM?" Danny asked, reading the cover on a well-thumbed manual.

We froze as the door behind us suddenly buzzed.

* * *

I turned as the door was pushed open; two people entered the room: Uncle Rodney and Mom!

"What are you three doing here?" Mom demanded and I could tell I was in real trouble.

"Exploring?" I asked tentatively with my best 'innocent little girl' smile.

Mom was not buying it!

"How did you get in here, anyway?" Uncle Rodney asked, and then he saw the card sticking out of my pocket. He seized it. "What else do you have?"

I grudgingly handed over the Life Signs Detector.

* * *

"Give me that!" Meredith demanded, taking the device off his niece, but then he paused and gave it back to Maddie.

"What?" She asked.

McKay then passed the device, in turn, to Anne-Marie and Danny. Finally, he stood up with a very perplexed expression on his face.

"They each have the ATA-gene!" He said slowly, sounding a little aggrieved.

I smiled.

"Oh, I can't _imagine_ the humiliation you are feeling right now!" I grinned with a smug expression.

"Why?" Meredith demanded.

"Oh come on! They have the ancient gene, but you had to get the therapy!"

"Thanks for reminding me, Jeannie!"

I turned to the kids.

"I am _so_ mad at you Maddie, and _your_ Mom will be mad at you two, too!" I said and then I pointed at the ZPM. "That device is absurdly powerful; ask my brother – something similar blew apart an entire solar _s_ ystem!"

"You just _had_ to bring that up again, didn't you? Project Arcturus was _nothing_ like a ZPM!" Meredith complained. "It was the ultimate power source—something that would make Zero Point Modules seem like alkaline batteries in comparison."

"You blew up a _whole_ solar system!" I exclaimed with a smile

"Actually it was five-sixths, but it's not an exact science!"


	5. The City of Atlantis

**_Thursday evening_**

 ** _'USS George Hammond'_**

We were in _big_ trouble!

I had never seen Mom _so_ mad, except that it was not all anger; I also saw the intense disappointment, which made me feel even worse. We had managed to disappoint the one person that Danny and I had promised each other never to disappoint. I just hoped that Mom might see how sorry we were; we really _were_ sorry.

I looked over at Dad; the look on _his_ face made me feel _so_ small.

* * *

I looked over at Mindy.

I had not done much more than say a weak 'hello', since coming aboard. I knew who she was – and what she did in Chicago. Okay, I was a Hit Girl Fan Girl! Now, though, I had made myself look really, really stupid in front of my hero. I had wanted to talk to her, but now she would most probably not want anything to do with a twelve-year-old girl that could not keep out of trouble.

As the eldest of us, I felt responsible. After all, it had been my idea to sneak off...

* * *

"If I hadn't tried to use my card at a store room on Desk Four, I've no idea what might have happened!"

"So what was that thing they were playing with," I asked.

"A ZPM," Dr McKay advised, pronouncing the letter 'z' to rhyme with 'dead'.

"A what?" I asked, just being facetious.

"A Zero Point Module..."

"Oh, a ZPM," I said, pronouncing the letter 'z' to rhyme with 'me'.

"Funny!"

"Actually, I agree with the good Doctor!" Joshua cut in, with his British accent.

"You would!" Chloe laughed.

"Thank you! At least somebody else is educated and speaks properly!" McKay said cheerfully.

"Of course, my dear Meredith!" Josh replied.

Everybody laughed while Dr McKay just groaned. I turned to the twins without smiling.

"Go to our quarters and stay there!" I growled ominously.

The two kids fled. Jeannie looked just as pissed as she pointed for her daughter to go, too.

* * *

"Are you two just stupid?"

Neither said a word; they just stared at the metal floor as I continued ranting at them. So far, I had been at for ten minutes straight. As I understood it, they might have blown up the entire vessel at worst, or just themselves at best and that last option had scared the hell out of me!

"I am _furious_ with you both. You obviously are _not_ old enough to be trusted with any responsibility; maybe it was a bad idea allowing you both to come to Pegasus..."

Anne-Marie looked up furiously at my comment.

"Why don't you just send us back; I'm sure that's what you want!" Anne-Marie retorted. "We just get in your way, like – like always."

"Don't say things like that!" Danny shouted.

"But it's true," Anne-Marie persisted, still looking at me. "You never trusted us enough to tell us about you being Hit Girl; you just left us to find out ourselves. We got in the way of that!"

"Well, maybe I _was_ right; you can't be trusted..."

"Obviously we are both a big disappointment to you! Why did you ever bother adopting us? I don't need to stand for this; I'm going..."

Anne-Marie pressed the button beside the door, but nothing happened. She hit it several times in increasing anger before the young girl span around and glared at me.

"What have you done?" She almost screamed accusingly.

"I asked Colonel Carter to lock down the door; I know how young girls behave when they are upset," I said quietly.

"I am _not_ upset!" My daughter yelled back. Danny was keeping well out of the way of his sister's rage.

"You finished?" I asked, raising my voice a fraction.

The responding glare, I assumed, meant 'yes'.

"You want to know _why_ I brought you both with us, to Pegasus." I said. "We brought you both, because neither of us could stand leaving you so far away, for so long; we love you both too much and while we knew that bringing you with us would be dangerous, as today has proved, at least we would be together."

Anne-Marie looked a little startled at the revelation and I could feel tears in my eyes.

"We love both of you an enormous amount and today we almost lost you both. Please don't do that to us again; I don't handle death very well..."

Anne-Marie looked horror-struck as tears fell down my cheeks. I saw Danny move closer to me; he was glaring at his sister.

"I – I didn't mean..."

I pulled both kids into a hug. The enormity of what might have occurred had now sunk in for both of them as they cried with me. We hugged for what seemed like hours, but was only twenty minutes.

"We grounded?" Danny asked, knowing the answer.

"Till you're about forty!"

* * *

My next task of apologising to Colonel Carter was not fun!

However, many were to blame, not least Dr McKay for not noticing his access card going missing. There had never been kids that young onboard either. There were many lessons learnt, but for the rest of the trip, an Airman was assigned to supervise the three kids and they were only allowed in their classroom, their quarters and the mess hall.

The only unsupervised access allowed was when they used the rest room!

* * *

 ** _Saturday afternoon_**

 ** _USS George Hammond_**

We were all on the bridge, Jeannie and Maddie too, as we dropped out of Hyperspace.

"All hands. All hands take stations for atmospheric entry!"

There in front of us was a solitary planet, which looked very similar to Earth; lots of water, but the land mass was different. It was the most amazing sight I had ever seen. All were speechless as they tried to absorb the sight.

" _Hammond_ , this is flight, you are clear for landing!"

"Understood, flight, we have the beacon!" Colonel Carter replied. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"It's just amazing. Thank you for letting us see this," I replied, trying to keep my excitement in check.

"You've come a long way to help us, so it's only fair that we show you the sights in return."

Within minutes, we passed through the atmosphere and, whoa, the photos I had already seen had not done the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis, justice…

The sight beneath me was unbelievable; I could hear quiet mutterings from the others who were all astonished at what they were witnessing. The City floated in the enormous ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see. The sky was clear, with a few white clouds and the sun made the City sparkle; it was tranquillity itself.

As we came closer, the City seemed to grow. The dominating feature was a single tower that rose in the centre of the floating mass. I knew that the starship we had been on for the past few days was, to my mind anyway, enormous, but Atlantis towered above us as we came closer and prepared to land.

"You all ready?" Major Hailey asked. We were going to be beamed to the tower, instead of waiting for the starship to land.

We all nodded 'yes' and Colonel Carter turned to her right and spoke to the man there, "Send them across!"

There was a brief white flash and the bridge of the ' _George Hammond_ ' vanished…

* * *

 ** _Atlantis_**

I found myself in a large open room.

I was facing a large set of stairs that went upwards. To my left and right were lesser steps that went up and led to doorways. Above me, there was a mezzanine floor to my left and right. Up and to the right there were many people and a hive of activity. I heard an exclamation and saw Marty looking behind me. I turned around and saw an enormous circular annulus that stood vertically.

It was a Stargate; the first one I had ever seen and it was enormous, about fifteen feet across. I walked over and touched it; it was cool to the touch, but somehow I felt a sense of immense power beneath my fingertips when I considered what that simple annulus was capable of generating. Around the gate, I knew, were thirty-six glyphs that represented Pegasus star constellations. There were seven, visible, chevrons, but I knew that two more were beneath the floor.

I turned as I heard a new voice.

"Welcome to Atlantis! I am Richard Woolsey, Commander of Atlantis. I do hope you have an enjoyable stay with us. I intend to have a more personal chat with each one of you, but for now, I will allow each of you to settle in and start to learn your way around the City. We have a complex programme setup for each of you to learn what you will need to accomplish your mission in Pegasus."

The man was not tall, but he was balding and wore glasses; he seemed to smile a lot, too.

"Err, thank you," I said, holding out my hand, which the man shook. "Mindy Lizewski…"

"… In addition, your husband, Dave, Anne-Marie and Danny Lizewski. Chloe Bennett, Joshua Williams, Megan Williams, Erika Cho and Marty Eisenberg. I do my homework!"

The man had pointed to the correct person, each time. He had obviously been provided with our photos!

"Welcome, Jeannie; you have been here before and welcome Maddie…"

Woolsey was interrupted by a man who came down the stairs.

"Mr Woolsey, we need you to check on something…" The man said, winking at me.

"Thank you, Chuck!" Woolsey replied.

"Thank God for that; I thought he was going to go on for ever!" Josh said quietly after Woolsey went up the stairs.

Hailey laughed.

"This is the Central Spire or Control Tower. We are seventy or so storeys up here; above us is the main Jumper bay. This space is Stargate Operations. Up there is the Control Room; from there, the whole City can be monitored. We also have the Stargate located in here. Mr Woolsey has his office up there too."

Hailey led us out of the Gate Room and down a short corridor, stopping in front of a pair of doors that slid open.

"We won't all fit in, so I'll send you, Mindy, with Dave and the twins, plus Erika. I'll follow with the others. Touch that symbol there…"

Hailey pointed at a screen that had quietly been uncovered at the back of what seemed to be a closet. The screen showed a plan of Atlantis with several yellow dots. Hailee had pointed at one in the bottom right of the City.

"… Get out at the other end."

We all crammed in and I touched the yellow dot. A second later, the doors opened and I expected to see the others, but no, it was a large hallway. I pushed everybody out of the – what was it? A transporter?

I looked out of a window and saw the Central Tower; it was a _long_ way away, probably a good kilometre or so – a very long walk!

I was interrupted by the arrival of the others, with Hailey. We were shown to our suite on the nineteenth level of the South-East Pier. As we approached the doors to the suite, they slid open automatically and we entered a comfortable looking, open plan living space. We were shown four bedrooms. I smiled; all had twin beds, except for one that had a double. Josh and Chloe looked horrified.

"Is this place secure?" I asked Hailey.

"Very. When you were beamed into Atlantis, the City scanned you and your unique DNA sequences were uploaded into the City's computer. On our way here, the techs programmed your suite for your DNA. Only you eight can enter here," Hailey explained.

"Talk about invasion of privacy!" Chloe moaned, glaring at the twin beds.

Hailey noticed their annoyance and said to Chloe, "The beds move!"

Chloe blushed bright red, but smiled in relief.

"The City is one giant redundant super-computer. It knows where everybody is and as you approach a door the City decides whether to open it, to close it, or to seal it."

"Cool!" Marty said.

"You, Erika and Dr Bennett are in the suite next door," Hailey finished, looking at Marty.

While Josh and Chloe rearranged the furniture in their room, I took the twins in to their room. They had an amazing view out over the end of the Pier towards the sea.

"We still grounded, Mom?" Anne-Marie asked.

I grinned. The girl had been very quiet since her temper tantrum on the ' _George Hammond_ '.

"One more slip up, young lady, and I believe they have stasis pods in the City somewhere and I will have you frozen until we go home!"

Anne-Marie's eyes went wide and she smiled a little, unsure if I was kidding or not. I left the kids to argue over the beds and after checking in on Megan and Curtis, I headed into what seemed to be the dining room.

On a table lay our new uniforms. There were several different uniforms and there was something for everybody, even the kids!

We all went to change.

* * *

 ** _The Suite_**

Once everybody was changed, we met in the lobby outside the suite.

The uniforms were well fitting and I thought I looked cool; Dave did at any rate! The uniforms consisted of charcoal-grey trousers and a zip-up jacket worn over a black t-shirt. On the right shoulder, we each had a patch that read ' **ATL** **ÅNTIS** '. The other shoulder bore the Stars and Stripes, or in the case of Josh, the Union Flag. While each member of Fusion wore the same basic uniform, each jacket bore two coloured patches either side of the zip. Marty had forest green, indicating Technical Operations. Cathy had yellow, indicating Health Sciences. The rest of us had black panels, indicating Security. On our feet, we wore comfortable black boots.

The twins wore zip-up jumpsuits in the same charcoal-grey colour. They each had an Atlantis patch on their right chest and the Stars and Stripes on their left shoulder. On their feet, they wore black boots, similar to the others.

We met up with Marty, Erika and Cathy. We were then joined by Jeannie and Maddie, who were staying in a suite a few doors down. Jeannie wore the same uniform as we were, but with blue panels on her jacket, which indicated Sciences and with a Canadian Maple Leaf on her left shoulder. Maddie wore the same jump suit as the twins, but with the same national flag as her mother.


	6. Off World

**_Sunday morning_**

 ** _Conference Room_**

It was our first official training at Atlantis.

"This," Major Laura Cadman explained, "is your only way back to Atlantis."

She was holding a small device; it was a weird shape and had a black Velcro strap attached. There was a screen and eight buttons.

"We call this a GDO, it will allow the Stargate shield to be dropped, and otherwise you will hit the shield like a bug on a car windshield and die!" Major Cadman finished with a grim smile. "If you are all coming back together, then you only need one signal to be sent. Each GDO is encoded for the person carrying it and we can identify whose GDO sends the signal. You will each have a secure code to memorise. If for any reason you or the GDO is compromised then the code will be locked out permanently and you will _not_ be allowed through the Stargate. Colonel!"

A GDO was passed to each of us, along with a page of instructions for programming in a code and operating the device.

Colonel Sheppard stood up and started to pass out black webbing belts, knives, scabbards and generic, thigh pistol holsters. It took us all several minutes to get ourselves geared up correctly. Both Marty and Cathy received the same equipment. As I understood it, almost everybody who went off world, went armed. Next came black tactical vests, interestingly they came in a smaller size for Megan and Curtis!

Finally, came the fun stuff!

"I understand you prefer Glock pistols, but we also have SIGs and a selection of others. We'll go round you all, one by one, and you can call out your choice. I would recommend the largest calibre that you feel safe firing. Let's start with Megan!"

"SIG Sauer P250 Compact!" Megan demanded.

An Airman checked through his trolley of weapons and pulled out a black pistol case, passing it across to Megan. The Airman wrote down what everybody was receiving, ready to be signed for.

"Nice choice!" Colonel Sheppard said approvingly. "Curtis?"

"Glock 19, please, Colonel!"

Another pistol case was passed over.

"Chloe?"

"Got an FN Five-seveN?" She asked tentatively.

"We do!"

"I'll take one, too!" Josh announced.

Two more pistol cases were passed out.

"Erika, next."

"Any Walther pistols?"

"You got us there!"

"Let's try a Glock 23 then..."

"Now for Marty..."

"I'll go for the Glock 22."

"Dr Bennett, what cannon would you prefer?"

"I'll go for the Glock 21, please."

"And for the Majors?"

"Glock 22, please," I responded.

"Glock 21 for me, thanks," Dave selected.

"You guys know your pistols!" Colonel Sheppard laughed. "I assume you all know how to use the FN P90?"

"All of us!" I confirmed.

Nine P90 PDWs appeared, and they were passed out. Next came spare magazines for the pistols and the P90s.

"Select your own ammunition from the Airman. I would recommend six spare pistol magazines and at least two spare P90 magazines if you can handle the weight. _Don't_ overload yourselves! Extra ammunition is always carried in the Jumpers."

The Colonel moved over to Dave and me. He handed over another holster and a Zat each.

"The Zat is optional. You could also carry a Stunner; they are in the armoury. Each of your team will also carry a block of C4 in their vest, plus a detonator and communications equipment. It is up to you to ensure that your team restocks their ammunition after each off world trip."

"Thank you Colonel."

After signing for all the equipment and receiving our C4 with detonators, we were shown our storage lockers. We were all cleared to wear a pistol as we saw fit. Only Dave, Josh and I chose to lug around a pistol all day. The final act was our communications equipment. A Technician appeared and issued a radio with earpiece to each of us. Dave, Marty, Cathy and I also received a slim line earpiece that sat comfortably on one ear.

"Tap the headset to talk. The communications system can recognise names and allocate a discrete channel as required. You should all carry a radio at all times when at Atlantic and when off world," Colonel Sheppard advised.

We all headed towards the Mess Hall for lunch.

* * *

On our way to lunch, Megan and I found ourselves walking down a corridor alone when we met a group of USAF personnel coming the other way.

An Airman First Class approached Megan with a smirk and looked down at her.

"Hello, buttercup, don't you look sweet?" He laughed. "You don't look dangerous at all!"

"Do you like pain?" Megan asked calmly.

"You think you could cause _me_ pain?" The Airman First Class, his name badge read Nicholls, replied with a grin.

Before anybody could say another word, Megan had spun on her heel and kicked Nicholls in the stomach, causing him to double over. Megan followed through with a kick between the man's legs, causing him to drop to his knees. There was a collective gasp of sympathy from the other men watching. Finally, she clasped both her hands together and brought them down hard on Nicholls' back, putting him flat on the floor.

Megan then knelt down beside the groaning man's head and grasped a handful of his hair, pulling his head back.

"You finished, 'Buttercup'?" She growled.

"Yes!" Nicholls groaned.

"Nice moves!" One of his colleagues laughed. "Today's lesson; don't mess with the Wildcat!"

Megan helped 'Buttercup' back to his feet and then to the Mess Hall. I went with her to keep an eye open for her getting into any more trouble!

"Hi, 'Buttercup', I'm Chloe," I said. "You seem to have met Megan!"

"She's good, I'll give her that!" Nicholls moaned holding himself.

"You may want some ice for those; keep the swelling down!" I laughed.

"Sorry! But you pissed me off, just a little," Megan said with a smile.

A large man with a lot of hair came over to the table and sat down. He smiled.

"I'm Ronan Dex and you must be Megan, right?"

"I am!" Megan said in surprise.

"Colonel Sheppard described you in glowing terms; 'short, but violent' were his exact words," Ronan laughed.

"You're part of Colonel Sheppard's team, aren't you?" I asked.

"You must be Chloe, I think?"

"You normally in the habit of learning the names of all the girls?" I demanded.

"Just the pretty ones and those that I'm going to be fighting beside."

"You're a local?" Megan asked.

"Yes, I am from Pegasus. I used to be a 'Runner' for the Wraith."

"A 'Runner'?" Megan asked.

"A long story..."

"You chatting up the women again, Ronan?"

A stunning looking woman sat down beside me and smiled at us all. She was short, a few inches over five feet and had shoulder length hair. She wore an Atlantis uniform with red panels, indicating Command.

"I am Teyla Emmagan. I see you've met Ronan – he likes to chat up pretty girls!"

"I am Chloe and the short, violent, one is Megan!"

"I see. Is that why there is an Airman struggling to stand?" Teyla asked with a grin.

"He annoyed me!"

"Everybody is curious about you all," Teyla explained. "I am also on Colonel Sheppard's team. I go along to control Ronan."

"Very funny, but I can look after myself!" Ronan said with a grin.

* * *

 ** _Main Jumper Bay_**

Due to the numbers going off world, fourteen, we were taking two jumpers.

' _Jumper 1_ ' was being flown by Colonel Sheppard, with Dr McKay, Teyla, Ronan, Joshua, Chloe and Cathy aboard. ' _Jumper 2_ ' was being flown by Major Cadman, with myself, Dave, Marty, Erika, Megan and Curtis.

* * *

 ** _Jumper 1_**

"Stargate Operations, Jumpers 1 and 2 are ready to leave for M4R-987!" Colonel Sheppard called.

"Jumpers 1 and 2, you are cleared for Stargate access!"

"Dial it up!" Colonel Sheppard said and Dr McKay punched buttons on the centre console.

The Jumper seemed to move automatically and moved forwards before descending into the Gate Room below, turning on it's axis as it went. We were then facing the Stargate, which had a weird 'puddle' shimmering in the centre of it; then we accelerated forwards and...

* * *

 ** _Jumper 1  
M4R-987_**

We burst into bright sunlight...

The Jumper rose upwards steeply before it banked around and I caught sight of the second Jumper appearing out of the Stargate before the 'puddle' vanished.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "My first time through a Stargate!"

"Cool, huh!" Colonel Sheppard laughed as he looked back towards me holding Josh's hand and grinning.

* * *

 ** _Jumper 2  
M4R-987_**

We burst into bright sunlight...

Up ahead and above us I could see the other Jumper, its drive-pods extended and banking towards us. I heard our own drive-pods deploy once clear of the Stargate. Weirdly there had been no sense of acceleration, but I could see that we were moving at high speed. I remembered back, to the training on the starship: inertial dampers!

Both Jumpers joined up and we flew several miles from the gate before we landed in a clearing, but stayed in the Jumpers.

"He's late!" Colonel Sheppard said over the radio.

"Nothing new there, sir," Major Cadman replied.

"We waiting for somebody?" I asked.

"A friend, sort of..."

"Jumper 1, Jumper 3, the Stargate just activated... One Wraith Dart coming through..."

* * *

 ** _Atlantis_**

We met a new kid today, Torren John Emmagan.

He was the son of Teyla, whom we had met at breakfast and he was nine-years-old. He had lived in Atlantis nearly all his life. He was Athosian, like his mother. Each morning and afternoon, we were to get school classes, along with some other Athosian children. Torren wore a similar uniform to us, while the Athosian kids wore their own clothes.

There were twelve kids in all and they all seemed pleased to meet Danny, Maddie and me. We had spent the morning being bored stupid by Dr Zelenka. He was a nice guy and was the Chief Science Officer for Atlantis, but what a geek! He lectured us on the major systems of Atlantis, and where we were, and were not allowed to access within the City. We also had to take notes. The Athosian kids were just as bored, but mainly because they had already had the lecture!

That afternoon we had a visit from Mr Woolsey – naptime!

* * *

 ** _M4R-987_**

I never registered the radio call, instead I heard a high-pitched noise coming towards us and then a strange craft flew over us and I watched as it landed a short distance away, on the other side of the clearing. It was long and had a very sharp, pointed nose. I recognised it from the briefing materials I had seen on the starship; it was a Wraith Dart.

If I was shocked by the sight of the alien ship, it was nothing to what I saw climbing out of it after the cockpit cover seemed to vanish! Whatever it was, it was humanoid and very tall. The skin was pallid, light green and I instantly recognised a starburst around the Wraiths left eye. It was the 'friendly' Wraith, which Colonel Sheppard had mentioned: Todd! He wore a long black coat and had long white hair and a long goatee.

At a command from Colonel Sheppard, we left the Jumpers and went over to meet the Wraith. For some reason I kept a hand close to my pistol. We had left the P90s in the Jumpers.

"John Sheppard!" The Wraith said loudly in greeting.

"Todd!" Colonel Sheppard replied with a forced smile before turning to the rest of us. "Don't let his smile fool you; he's ten thousand years old and a pain in the ass!"

"Now John Sheppard, we are friends, are we not?" Todd replied.

"It's a love-hate relationship!" Colonel Sheppard confirmed. "These people are new to Pegasus and I wanted them to meet a Wraith, just not in a gun fight!"

"That is a good idea, John Sheppard," Todd agreed.

"I'm Mindy and these are Dave, Marty, Cathy, Joshua, Chloe, Erika, Megan and Curtis."

"Pleased to meet friends of John Sheppard!" Todd said as he held out his right hand.

"Be nice!" Colonel Sheppard ordered, pulling out his pistol.

Todd laughed deeply.

"Just a little Wraith humour!"

"Can we see your ship?" Curtis asked bravely.

Todd shrugged and waved Curtis towards the Dart.

"Just don't fly it too far!" Todd laughed.

"You did take the keys out?" Colonel Sheppard queried with a smile.

* * *

The alien ship was awesome!

Josh, Megan and I ran over to examine it up close. The ship was long and pointed, with a larger rear for the engine – I assumed. It seemed to be made from something that looked like bone – I remembered somebody saying that the Wraith used organic hulls for their ships.

I touched it; it felt cold, but strangely alive.

* * *

I sensed something from Todd.

I felt respect for him, not as a friend, but as an enemy that would put up a good fight. Looking at the body form, I assumed that Todd was a good fighter. Well, he should be to have survived ten thousand years!

"May I," I asked tentatively, pointing at Todd's right hand.

Todd obliged, holding his hand out flat. Ignoring the long fingernails, the hand seemed normal except that there was a strange looking opening that I understood was used to 'feed' on a human's life force. I did not touch the hand, which was light green.

* * *

After another twenty minutes, Todd climbed back into his Dart.

We watched as his cockpit was covered by an opaque substance and then he took off and headed towards the gate. Two minutes later, I heard another radio call.

"Jumper 1, Jumper 3, the Stargate just deactivated... Todd is gone..."

"Jumper 3?" I asked Major Cadman.

"A cloaked Jumper is hidden near the Stargate; call it insurance!" She replied. "It's not that we don't trust Todd..."

"You just don't trust Todd!"


	7. The Dangers of Pegasus

**_One week later_**

 ** _Atlantis_**

As a team, we had had a lot to consider over the previous week.

Each day, after breakfast, Fusion met in the conference room and sat around the large table to discuss the previous day's events and the upcoming plans for that day. Mr Woolsey had allowed us to use the conference room so that we could decide how far to risk the team; it had been his idea actually.

Most importantly, Megan had not injured any more Airmen, but she had gained their respect. There were still some jokes, but everything was done in a good-natured fashion, especially as Megan had begun carrying around a Wraith Stunner in a holster. Not because of the Airmen, I should add, but because of the Wraith threat.

Meeting Todd had been a revelation for all of us. I for one was very worried about having to fight just the _one_ Wraith, let alone several; hey, I was trained to fight humans, not life sucking aliens from another galaxy! I knew that the others had the same fears; indeed, Megan had chosen to wear her Wildcat gauntlets whenever she was off world. In light of our concerns, I had asked Colonel Sheppard to let us speak with people that had fought the Wraith, hand to hand, to get some tips. He had provided a long list! The comments from those who had fought the Wraith in the past were worrying, but also eye opening.

It often took many bullets to put one down and hand-to-hand fighting was not a recommended method for fighting the Wraith. We had talked in depth about the Wraith threat, as a team. Hunting the other Fusion was to be dangerous enough without having to worry about alien lifeforms appearing and killing or capturing us so that they could suck the life out of us at their leisure! We had seen a Wraith Dart and a Wraith Cruiser, two in fact, but we had not seen a Wraith Hive and I really did not want to see one, ever and definitely not he inside of one!

I actually began to regret bringing the kids so close to _real_ danger. I also worried continuously that some of the team would not make it back to Earth, alive.

...+...

For some reason I had chosen to dispel my uneasiness with being evil!

Some might say that I was always evil – maybe I was. Only the day before, I had been in a corridor of the South-East Pier when I had heard voices, it had been Anne-Marie and Megan. Why I did it, I had absolutely no idea; it had just seemed a good idea at the time!

I had approached the corner and peeked around – yes, the two girls were chatting happily and they had no idea that I was there. So… I pulled out my Zat and activated it; I loved the weapon and I was planning to sneak one or two back to Chicago, _if_ we ever returned to Earth. Once the two girls were in range, I sent a single blast of energy in their direction; they both fell to the floor of the corridor.

I suddenly felt _so_ guilty and then Dave appeared around another corner and stopped dead; I hid the Zat behind me. I tried to look innocent, but I could feel my face burning and on the floor, by my feet, lay Megan and Anne-Marie, both unconscious.

"What have you done?" Dave demanded, gazing at the empty Zat holster on my hip, although his tone said that he knew, full well, what I had probably done.

"Well, I err, I heard them talking as I came down the corridor and well, I err, couldn't resist…," I replied weakly with a sweet smile.

"You _Zatted_ , them?" Dave asked incredulously.

"Kind of…"

" _Kind of_...! You _are_ a nasty bitch; zatting your own daughter and your own sister!"

I grinned; I could not help it.

"You're not sorry, are you?"

"Not really, no…," I replied honestly with an apologetic smile.

"You need to be punished!" Dave growled.

Again, I grinned; honestly, I could not help myself. My grin vanished quickly as I saw Dave pull a Wraith Stunner from his holster and raise it towards me…

"Daaaave... Nooooo…" I called out as I tried to bring the Zat up.

Next thing I remembered was regaining consciousness with Megan and Anne-Marie grinning down at me. Dave never told them what had really happened; I just told them it must have been a gas leak!

...+...

The other Fusion had been spotted, just once, since we had arrived on Atlantis.

Naturally, by the time we had arrived at where they had been spotted, they were long gone. Nobody knew where their base of operations was, nor who was actually supporting them. It was rumoured that they were being supported by the Genii, but it was an unsubstantiated rumour and we could only rely on facts. Pegasus was huge with many, many planets and moons, many with Stargates on them. Some planets, I understood had Stargates in orbit and as far as we knew, the other Fusion operated on foot, without ships which should, in theory, limit the places to hide.

"Everybody had a good breakfast?" I asked the assembled team.

"It was edible!" Josh commented to general laughter.

"We are joining up with SG-1, today, and then we are going to visit some ruins on a planet, sorry moon, which is a few dozen light-years from here. We believe that the other Fusion was based there for a short time. For now, it is the only lead that we have..." I said as I was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yeah!" I called.

The door opened and several people entered.

"Good morning, all!" Colonel Cameron Mitchell said cheerfully.

"Morning!" Major Jennifer Hailey added as she entered the room.

"Hi!" Doctor Daniel Jackson waved. "Please meet the other member of SG-1, Vala Mal Doran!"

"Hello, people!"

The new addition was tall and quite stunning. She had long black hair and a broad smile.

"As Danny said, I'm Vala!" the woman grinned, while Dr Jackson groaned at the use of 'Danny', then she looked over at Dave. "Aren't you young and handsome?"

"Vala, behave!" Dr Jackson warned.

* * *

I actually thought that Vala was a bit of fun, although Doctor Jackson seemed to think otherwise for some reason or another – maybe I would ask him later.

Colonel Mitchell was nice and he had his own distinctive way of running his team. Our trip to M8R-435 was expected to be purely routine, although as I understood it most Stargate trips were far from routine!

I was still concerned about how I might react when I came across myself... That was a weird thought: meeting myself... How would I feel actually _fighting_ myself? I might have to fight the others, too – Dave, Josh, Chloe...

Moreover, we might have to fight to the death!

* * *

 ** _M8R-435_**

We cloaked the three Jumpers as soon as we had passed through the Stargate.

There was every chance that there was a trap awaiting us on the small moon; therefore, we were not going to take any chances and we flew to a point where we could get a clear overview of the ruins. Once we had landed, we left the Jumpers and took up positions for a reconnaissance of the area.

The ruins had been there a long time; thousands of years, but some of the buildings were intact enough for somebody to use them for shelter. There was no sign of life, but they may have been warned of our arrival by the activation of the Stargate. The life signs detector showed nobody close by, so we headed down to the ruins in three teams, the fourth team was to remain with the Jumpers if needed and to guard them, despite the cloaks.

Team 1 was Colonel Mitchell, Dr Jackson, Dave, Chloe and Vala. Team 2 was Major Hailey, Curtis, Josh, Teyla and Erika. Team 3 was Major Cadman, myself, Megan and Ronan. Team 4 was Colonel Sheppard, Dr McKay, Marty and Cathy.

Cathy was there for medical support and she and Marty wanted to get some off-world training. Everybody was armed, even Cathy. We were taking no risks, hence eighteen people and three Jumpers.

* * *

We came from three directions, co-ordinating our approach.

Vala and Chloe seemed to get on well together, which was good. If she was talking to Chloe, then she was not talking to me!

"I notice something between you and Vala, Dr Jackson," I said and saw a pained look on his face.

"Vala is a permanent thorn in my side!" Dr Jackson said loudly with a smile at Vala, who seemed to ignore him. "She's okay, we just had a rather painful introduction and so forth over a number of years..."

"Okay – less said!"

"Yeah!"

* * *

"I like your gauntlets, Wildcat; they are seriously dangerous," Ronan commented.

Megan raised up her left gauntlet and deployed her claws.

"I hope so; those Wraith scare me," Megan admitted.

"Me too; I've been fighting them for a long time. They are an adversary that deserves our respect, but the Wraith are _not_ invincible; remember that. We have hurt them badly, on a number of occasions, only there are a lot of them and more coming every day."

"Sucks, huh!"

"It does, yes it does."

* * *

We searched the ruins, which took a few hours.

There was evidence of people living there, campfires and rubbish – some of which was definitely of Earth or Tau'ri origin. From what we could tell, six or more people had slept in one of the buildings. Most of the footprints were of adult or teenaged size, which matched what we had expected to find. However, there was also evidence of smaller footprints, which proved to be confusing.

Despite searching the entire ruins, we found nothing that could help us, and no clue as to where to go next. It was getting very frustrating – I had hoped that we would come to Pegasus, sort out the _other_ Fusion and then get back to our lives in our normal galaxy.

My god, I was actually conversing as though being in a different galaxy was actually normal!

* * *

I was hauled out of my thoughts by a yell over the radio from Colonel Sheppard.

"Sheppard: movement in the trees on the far side of the ruins!"

I turned in the relevant direction and brought out my binoculars, focussing them on the trees. What I saw almost made me shit myself.

"This is Hit Girl; multiple Wraith inbound from the trees!" I called over the radio.

The trap was sprung – there were a dozen Wraith warriors coming our way, they were armed with Wraith Spear Guns and they appeared ominous as they approached.

They were hideous with their masks, but we were used to fighting masked enemies, so I put it to the back of my mind and aimed my P90, sending a half-dozen rounds into the first and then again into the second warrior. Others of the Team were firing too. There were bursts from the Wraith stunners, coming in our direction.

"Stargate activating – one, no two Wraith Darts coming through...!" Doctor McKay called over the radio. He sounded somewhat rattled.

We had whittled the Wraith down to only two; it was easier than I thought as I switched out an empty P90 magazine. Then I heard the whine of a Wraith Dart approaching and saw it coming over the trees very fast. Surprisingly it was not aimed at us, but at the two Wraith warriors. I also heard a Jumper overhead and saw several yellow drones being fired from the deployed weapons pods. It was Sheppard's Jumper.

Just before the Dart was blown out of the sky, I saw a shimmering inverted cone appear from beneath the dart and six more Wraith warriors joined the other pair!

"Not fucking fair – bastards!" I yelled to nobody in particular.

Ronan Dex smiled at me as he continued to send blasts towards the Wraith. It occurred to me then that there should have been one of those Wraith leaders, too, to lead the warriors. We had not seen any yet, which I gathered was out of the ordinary. It might also be a sign of something else to come. I followed the wreckage of the first Dart as it fell to the ground and heard the other Dart coming around for its own pass.

I saw a pair of drones launch from Sheppard's Jumper and blow the Dart to pieces overhead. I cheered as I killed another Wraith warrior.

"Behind you!" Vala yelled out, rolling around to fire her P90 behind me.

..._...

I span around and there they were, two Wraith leaders and eight or so warriors. Stupid! I was so stupid to keep watching forwards and not checking my rear. The P90 jammed so I let it hang from its harness and pulled out the Zat, sending energy zipping through the air. Ronan dived to one side, just missing a stunner blast that had been aimed at him. I saw Doctor Jackson go down to a stunner, but knew he would be okay as long as we were able to keep the Wraith away from him.

Vala was a remarkably good shot and lethal; so was Teyla. Colonel Mitchell was running in from the left, with Josh and Chloe in pursuit. Curtis and Megan had just taken out the final pair of Wraith warriors from those beamed down by the Dart. They ran towards us to provide support.

Dave was nowhere to be seen and neither were Erika and Major Hailey. The Wraith leaders moved quickly; they had caught us all out of position and in danger of capture. I fell to the ground to avoid a stunner blast just as the Wraith were about to be close enough for hand-to-hand combat.

Then there was a heavy blast of P90 fire and both Wraith leaders and the last of the warriors fell to the ground. As they fell, Dave, Erika and Major Hailee were revealed standing in line abreast, behind the Wraith, P90s at their shoulders.

"You miss me, gorgeous?" Dave called out.


	8. Mindy Squared

**_Two weeks later_**

I was getting seriously annoyed and fed up.

Despite being in a different galaxy, millions of miles from home, I was bored. There had been no action, since that attack on M8R-435 and Dave was watching me like a hawk to ensure that I did not Zat anybody!

I spent hours each day exercising in the weight's room and running between our accommodation and the central tower. It was a good distance and kept me fit. The kids were happy – they loved Atlantis and there was plenty to keep them occupied. Not that they kept out of trouble...

Maddie led the little group of trouble-makers. The other members were Anne-Marie, Danny and Torren. Together the four of them kept being discovered in various parts of the city where they did not belong. They also seemed to be on a mission to annoy Dr Zelenka and Mr Woolsey! Woolsey I did not mind, but Zelenka was a nice guy – if a bit geeky. Marty spent a lot of time with Zelenka and they got on really well, too.

Marty would spend hours on shift in the Control Room learning to use the consoles there and how to operate the Stargate.

I was in the armoury – I felt comfortable there – starting to get morose when a city wide announcement was made.

"Colonel Sheppard and Majors Lizewski report to the Control Room!"

I ran out of the armoury and towards the closest transporter.

* * *

 ** _Atlantis Control Room_**

"They've been spotted – with some Genii!" Woolsey advised me as I arrived.

"Where?" I asked just as Colonel Sheppard appeared.

"M4R-924."

"We going in?" I asked.

"Wheels up in forty minutes!" Sheppard ordered and we all ran to get ready.

* * *

 ** _M4R-924_**

The two Jumpers blazed out of the Stargate, cloaking instantly as they climbed into the sky.

Our arrival had been seen – several grey clad soldiers tried to fire on us as we vanished into the sky.

"Genii!" Colonel Sheppard commented.

I had heard about the secretive Genii culture. Though I could understand their reasons for doing what they did; I still despised them. But, I had to respect them as professional soldiers, fighting for their culture.

We swooped low over the moon's landscape. It was green, with plenty of trees and some open grassy areas. Did I say that I was flying? It was a skill that I had mastered of late, having flown Jumpers around Atlantis, zipping between the tall spires – I had only scratched _one_ Jumper!

I managed to set us down without incident, followed by Jumper 2.

"Not bad!" Colonel Sheppard commented as he looked out of the windshield at the grass beside us. "Could have parked a little closer to the kerb..."

"Fuck you, Colonel!" I growled to general laughter and a grin from Sheppard.

* * *

We deployed from the Jumpers.

Team 1 was me with Curtis, Josh, Teyla and Major Hailey. Team 2 was Dave with Major Cadman, Megan, Erika and Ronan. Team 3 was Colonel Sheppard with Dr McKay, Cathy, Chloe and Marty.

Team 3 would remain with the Jumpers in case air support was required and to protect the Jumpers from attack – despite them being cloaked. They were our only way home.

I signalled for Team 1 and Team 2 to move out. It was going to be the first time that Fusion members were leading the teams, although we still had Atlantis members on hand to advise when things went to crap.

..._...

We hiked through the trees, keeping under cover – we covered a couple of miles before we saw activity. There, just a dozen yards away were three Genii soldiers. I waved everybody down and both teams spread out taking up firing positions. A brief check of the Life Signs Detector showed just those three, so I waved Josh and Ronan forward.

They moved stealthily until they got to within a couple of yards. Then Ronan spoke.

"Time to sleep!"

With that, Josh fired his Wraith Stunner twice and Ronan fired his gun on its stun setting once. The three Genii gently slumped to the ground. We deactivated their weapons and moved on in the knowledge that where there were three, there may well be others.

* * *

Forty minutes later we heard talking ahead.

Both teams separated and spread out advancing through the trees. I pulled out a monocular scope and scanned ahead. I almost shit myself when I found myself looking at Dave! I quickly peered to my left and saw _my_ Dave... Damn it was freaky!

"I have sight of Dave's doppelganger," I cautioned.

"Is he handsome like me?" Dave quipped. "Oh fuck – another Joshua – just what we don't need!"

"Thanks – wouldn't mind a second Chloe though..." Josh mused.

I moved off to the right, away from where 'Dave #2' and 'Joshua #2' had been spotted – I had to call them something that was not confusing so '#2' would have to do! Josh followed me while Teyla and major Hailey covered us.

I had not gone far when I heard a rustling off to one side and I quickly dived through some bushes and into a small clearing, my P90 raised.

* * *

There she was, another blonde girl.

I felt weird – it was _not_ like looking in a mirror; nothing like it! As I came out into the clearing, the other Mindy turned to face me. She smirked in a way that showed her distaste for what she saw; I knew my own expressions.

"So they sent you cunts, did they?" 'Mindy #2' said, as she looked me up and down. "Not a big surprise; you send the best to take out the best!"

"Seen enough?" I growled back.

"Your hair sucks!"

"Whoa!" Came another voice.

I turned to see Josh coming into the clearing behind me. His eyes moved from one Mindy to the other as he moved to stand beside me. "Interesting!"

"So you have a Joshua, too!" 'Mindy #2' stated.

'Josh #2' soon appeared in the clearing and stood beside _his_ Mindy. He looked about the same as our Josh, but maybe a little stockier.

"Hi, wankers!" He said with a wave. Another cocky cunt!

My Josh scowled, but said nothing. I sensed a trap... Where was their Chloe and Dave?

"Josh, I think we should leave our Mindy's to it," Josh said with a grin.

'Josh #2' thought about that for barely a second.

"Not a bad idea – I like bitch fights!" He commented with a grin.

"I thought you would..." Josh commented.

I saw my twin turn and scowl at her Josh before she turned back, throwing her own P90 to the floor of the clearing and I followed suit. We circled each other for a moment, studying each other closely.

I drew my knife and so did she. We began to fight. I dodged the strikes – she was good – I was good! She dodged every strike from my knife and then smacked me across the face – the bitch! I caught her leg as she made to kick me, dumping her on her back – she screamed in pain, punching me in the thigh before sweeping my legs out from under me.

She was on her feet first, but I flipped myself to my feet before she could hit me. I was then kicked hard in the chest and I crashed into her Josh, cushioning my landing.

"Thanks!" I growled.

"Anytime!" Josh grimaced.

I got to my feet and fended off another knife strike before ramming my elbow into my opponent's stomach. She fell to her knees, struggling to breathe. I followed through with a kick to her face and she collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Fuck! You bitch – I'll kill you for that!" Another voice snarled and 'Chloe #2' appeared, a pistol in her hand.

Before she could shoot, she fell to the ground as my Josh fired his Stunner into her, followed up by another shot at 'Josh #2', but Josh missed as his double dived out of the clearing. Then all hell broke loose as some Genii soldiers appeared. We tried to seize the unconscious Mindy and Chloe, but we were forced to leave the clearing by the heavy concentration of Genii fire.

* * *

I ran about fifty yards before I stopped.

The teams were fragmented and I had got separated from Josh. That was a problem. All around us was the sound of gunfire – the deeper reports of the Genii weapons mixed in with the sharper reports of the P90s.

I moved in the direction of Team 2 and what I hoped would be the rest of Team 1. I pushed through some trees and then crawled under some bushes – another clearing lay before me. It looked empty, but as I rolled out of the bushes and came to my feet, I heard a voice.

A young voice.

"Hello, _'Mother'_!"

* * *

The girl pulled a small automatic pistol from her hip holster and raised it towards me.

I was genuinely speechless. Talk about the unexpected; I had had absolutely no idea that there would be an alternate Anne-Marie in Pegasus! Things just got so much harder as I drew the Zat, deploying it as I prepared to fire.

"You would shoot me?" I asked gently.

"Yes, I would – you are nothing to me – just somebody that looks like my Mom..."

"I suppose you would..."

"However; I don't think that you would shoot me... Sweet Anne-Marie!"

She was right there – but then I was not aiming a pistol at her, but a relatively harmless Zat. The time had come – it was she or I, a bad decision to have to make...

We both fired at the same time; her aim was off, however mine was not.

* * *

I zip-tied the young girl's hands and threw her over my shoulder.

She was unconscious and would be for a while yet. I ran towards the sharper P90 reports and found Joshua. He grabbed the girl from my shoulder and lay her gently onto the grass. His face showed surprise, but he remained focussed on the job in hand. Dave glanced over and gave me a questioning look; I just shrugged.

"Team 3 – it's time to leave!" I ordered after consultation with Majors Hailey and Cadman.

The cloaked Jumpers flew in and dropped their ramps a dozen or so yards behind us and we evacuated everybody, plus our extra passenger.

The mission had been a success, kind of!

* * *

 ** _Atlantis  
Upper Jumper Bay_**

"Well, this is more than a little weird!"

"Tell me about it!" Danny said as he stared from one sister to the other.

"One Anne-Marie was trouble; but two?" Josh exclaimed. "God, I'm glad we only have one Megan!"

"Thanks, Joshua!" Megan growled.

"Talk about having an evil twin!" Anne-Marie exclaimed.

One thing concerned me – for now, they were dressed differently, but if anything happened, we would have no idea who was who... Mind you, 'Evil Anne-Marie' was still handcuffed and she would also be spending a few days in isolation.

"Send me back to my parents, cunts!" 'Evil Anne-Marie' growled out.

A foul mouth too!

"Cut that out!" Josh growled back.

"Fucking make me!"

I was shocked to see _our_ Anne-Marie stride over to her 'evil twin' and slap her hard across the face.

"I don't care _who_ you look like – you _do_ _not_ talk to my friends like that!"

"Way to go, sis!" Danny said approvingly – rather shocked at his sister's behaviour.

'Evil Anne-Marie' looked shocked and she now had a very red hand print on her left cheek. I could also see tears in her eyes from the pain. I hated not being able to comfort her, but she was _not_ my daughter, no matter _what_ she looked like.

"Take her away!" I ordered two Airmen.

"Ma'am."

The eight-year-old girl was now sobbing quietly as she was led away.

* * *

 ** _Atlantis  
Isolation Room_**

I was mad.

How could she have attacked me like that! Mom had said that there was no way that I would be hurt by the other Mindy! I had seen her pointing that strange device at me and just as I had pulled the trigger on the pistol, I had felt a surge of a painful sensation throughout my body and then nothing.

I had awoken, with my hands bound, in the back of one of their space-ships. Then I had had to suffer the humiliation of meeting my other-self and a kid that looked just like my brother, while hand-cuffed. Then that other little bitch slapped me! It had hurt, both physically and emotionally. I really missed Mom and Dad.

I was alone.

* * *

It worried me, leaving an eight-year-old girl all alone like that.

However, she had proved herself to be dangerous, so there was no choice. It had to be better than the brig, though. I looked down on her as she slept in the bed; I had seen her crying herself to sleep and that had been hard. No mother liked to see a child alone like that, but as I said, there was no choice.

After another minute, I left the girl to her dreams and headed back to the South-East Pier and my own children.

* * *

 ** _The following morning_**

 ** _Atlantis Isolation Room_**

"Hi!"

"What do _you_ want?" The girl asked sullenly as she looked over at us.

"We thought you might like some company while you have breakfast; it must be lonely in here," I commented. "I know I am not your mother and this young lady is not you, but she was worried."

"Okay," the young girl replied. "Do you have to cuff me?"

"Will you behave?" I asked, indicating the Zat on my hip.

She nodded, a look of fear on her young face. Maybe my compassion as a mother was clouding my judgement, but I felt for the girl.

"Come on, I'm hungry!"

* * *

 ** _The Dining Room_**

It was still strange seeing _two_ girls that looked like my sister!

However, it was obvious that the one playing with her food, rather than eating it, was the 'Evil Anne-Marie'. I knew what it was like to miss your parents, so I felt sorry for the girl.

"How did you get to Pegasus?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

The girl looked up from her breakfast and stopped moving scrambled egg and bacon around her plate.

"Mom and Dad were called in by the Military. At that stage Danny, _my_ Danny, and I never knew that we had vigilante heroes for parents. Then one day, we found out and we were so proud of our Mom and Dad. Then we got beamed up to this big ass space-ship and three weeks later, we were in Pegasus, only it all went to shit before we even got there..."

Apart from her language, she was very much like my own sister!

"We were attacked by the Wraith and then another species called Replicators. They badly damaged the _Daedalus_ and we were beamed down onto a planet along with the surviving crew before the ship blew up. Somebody dialled up the Stargate, but when it was our turn, we were attacked – the Replicators again. Something happened and we found ourselves back on the same planet, only there was no sign of anybody. We were alone. Somewhere down the line, our Marty figured out that we were not in the same universe – how, I have no idea; I _am_ only eight!"

"Thanks for that Anne-Marie," Mindy commented. "We only want to help; your team have been causing a lot of trouble in _our_ Pegasus."

"It was our only chance of survival."

* * *

Not surprisingly, we ran into the other Fusion twice more.

They were now after us, just as much as we were after them – we had their Anne-Marie and I knew that 'Mindy #2' would move heaven and earth to get her back – I would! During our most recent meeting, 'Chloe #2' had managed to catch my arm with a knife. It had hurt and there was nothing bad about the wound – it would heal.

"What next?" Dave asked when we were back in the Jumper on the way back to the Stargate.

I grimaced and took a sharp intake of breath as Dave tended to my wound.

"A lot of questions, Dave. Damn few answers."

* * *

Over the next few days, I put a lot of thought into what we were doing and I also spent a lot of time gazing down on the lonely young girl in the Isolation Room.

I did not spend time with her – it would not be fair on either of us. Woolsey, though, had allowed the kids to spend time with our guest from another universe, always under guard by at least a pair of Airmen and an adult member of Fusion.

Dave came and stood with me as I looked down on the five kids below us.

"Well, they say if you travel far enough you will eventually meet yourself. Having experienced that, Dave, it's not something I would care to repeat."


	9. Doppelganger

**_A little over a week later  
Wednesday_**

It had to happen at some stage, but my judgement had been clouded by my emotions.

It had all started on the Sunday morning. The other Anne-Marie had gone missing. A search had been unable to find her, even using the City's sensors. I gathered that was not a major surprise as some parts of the City were hidden from the sensors for various technical reasons.

The Stargate was guarded at all times, so there was no escape there.

* * *

 ** _Three days earlier  
Sunday_**

It had been easy.

Way too easy, actually. Over the past week I had been watching and learning. The other kids came to spend time with me, which I had to admit was nice as I was getting very depressed being kept in isolation. I finally had my chance on the Sunday morning. I had faked a stomach problem and the other Anne-Marie had helped me to the closest bathroom – the one in the isolation room was not working; I had seen to that!

I had punched the other girl's lights out in the bathroom before stripping her completely naked and changing my clothes for hers. I did not bother redressing her, but instead I gave her the dignity of wearing my knickers and then tied her up with my trousers and jacket before I stuffed a sock in her mouth. I dragged her to a maintenance hatch and pushed her inside. Before I closed it, I used _her_ fist to punch me in the face and then slammed the hatch closed.

Who cared what happened to her? I did not – maybe that was cold – but I had a mission...

I rearranged my hair to match hers, including using _her_ hair clips and bobbles. I checked myself out in the mirror – I was the other Anne-Marie, from head to toe – except for the new bruise, which hurt like hell! I left the bathroom and headed back to the isolation room mentally preparing myself for what was to come next. I had soaked up every piece of information that I could from the other kids with subtly phrased questions.

..._...

Outside the isolation room, I braced myself before running in and blurting out what had happened.

"She hit me and ran off – help!" I yelled at the two Airmen who quickly vanished out of the door.

The Fusion member that day was that bitch, Megan! She came over to me, her face full of concern for my injury.

"You okay?" She asked. "Does it hurt?"

"Yeah, it does..." I replied, reminding myself not to swear, as the other Anne-Marie never seemed to.

Next, came the hardest part: I had to ensure that other Mindy saw _me_ as her daughter.

* * *

I heard it first, over my ear-piece.

The other Anne-Marie had escaped from isolation, injuring _my_ daughter... I bolted out of the Control Room at a sprint, heading for the transporter. I would kill that little rat when I found her!

I found my daughter on a chair in the isolation room, rubbing her jaw.

"Let me see!" I said, taking hold of Anne-Marie's head and looking closely. "You'll be fine – it'll sting a bit, that's all..."

I hugged her and was actually surprised when she cried a little. Probably the shock of the attack, I thought. I took my daughter back to our quarters and had her keep quiet for a couple of hours. Not surprisingly, she did not want to 'keep quiet' – but I insisted and she gave in.

When I checked, an hour later, she was out for the count.

..._...

There was a major man-hunt going on in the City.

Teams of men and women scoured the City of Atlantis – no easy task considering the sheer scale of the place. There were many places that the little girl could hide and stay hidden. I was pissed at my daughter getting hurt, but I also blamed myself for lowering my guard and allowing the kids to spend time with that bitch.

..._...

That evening, Anne-Marie joined us in the Mess Hall for dinner.

"You okay, kid?" Dave asked with a smile.

"The pain has gone and it just tingles a bit."

"Good – get something to eat, you must be hungry!" I suggested.

"Yeah, I'm starving, err, Mom..."

* * *

 ** _Tuesday afternoon_**

My daughter seemed none the worse for her ordeal and she was now back with her friends, in school where she belonged.

Security patrols still wandered the halls, mainly around the Central Spire, for security. There had been no sign of the girl, nor for that matter had there been any sign of her compatriots. The other Fusion seemed to have gone underground – not surprising, considering that we had captured one of their own.

We were certain that they would be planning a rescue of some kind; I would, if my daughter had been taken. I knew that my counterpart, the other Mindy would be really angry – and distraught – at the loss of her daughter. The revenge she would be planning would be severe – I would need to be on my guard.

I spent a lot of time with Anne-Marie and checked up on her regularly. I noticed that my presence was not always wanted, either!

"She's feeling a little, well – she wants some time without you at her shoulder all the time..." Maddie tried to explain that morning, so I agreed to give my daughter some space.

..._...

Later that afternoon, I was in the armoury, servicing my weapons.

"Atlantis, we have a problem!" Dr McKay commented as he poked his head around the door.

"What?"

"You had better get to the Infirmary," Dr McKay explained cryptically. "Where is your daughter?"

"In school, why?"

"Follow me..."

..._...

We both walked into the Infirmary and I froze for a minute before I could speak, anger building inside me.

"So you found the bitch then..."

The girl was lying in a bed and looking distraught.

" _Mom_ – it's me, _I'm_ your daughter – she tricked me and hit me..."

The girl was stricken that I thought that she was not my own daughter. How the hell could we tell them apart? I looked over at Cathy for a moment and she just shrugged.

"So, for the past two days..." I began and then triggered my comms. "This is Major Lizewski. Apprehend Anne-Marie Lizewski and secure her in the brig!"

I turned to Cathy.

"Mindy, this _has_ to be your daughter – I can see _no_ reason for _your_ daughter to put out the fake Anne-Marie..."

"Oh, God – I'm so sorry, honey..." I said as I hugged my daughter and looked up at Cathy. "Is she okay?"

"Quite severe dehydration and a nasty bruise on her jaw, but otherwise she's okay," Cathy explained.

"It was an Airman that found her during a routine inspection," McKay advised.

"Tell him, I owe him."

* * *

The girl had gone by the time an Airman had entered the classroom.

Apparently, she had been sent on an errand, but had not returned – that had been an hour previously. It was possible that she had decided she was on borrowed time. I was incensed about my daughter almost dying. I wanted to kill the other girl and I did not give a shit about her age... I went hunting.

"Mindy – you cannot kill that girl; you would never forgive yourself..." Dave said, quite reasonably as I grabbed a P90 from the armoury.

I hesitated and put the weapon back, seizing a Wraith Stunner Rifle instead.

* * *

I headed out into the City, with Dave as my conscience.

We started near to the Central Spire and fanned out from there. We had been at it for almost an hour when we received a call.

"Major Lizewski," Chuck called from the Control Room. "We have somebody on the North Pier, currently looking very lost by the movements."

"Thanks, Chuck – guide us in!" I called, pulling out a Life Signs Detector and running for the nearest transporter.

* * *

 ** _The North Pier_**

I was lost!

All the damned corridors looked the same and I had been wandering around for over an hour. What was I doing? I had heard something over an Airman's radio – something about finding a girl; I had panicked. I had headed for a transporter and just pressed a random location. Where ever I was, did not seem to be used very much. There was water damage and evidence of fighting.

I hoped I would have some time to think and figure out my options. How could I escape? I could not use the Stargate and I had recently discovered that the _other_ Anne-Marie had some type of gene which could control Ancient technology, but _I_ did not!

I headed down another corridor, when something hit the wall beside me – it was a blueish blast of energy of some kind. I looked behind me and saw that bitch holding a Wraith Stunner – I ran.

"Get back here, you fucking little..."

* * *

We had found her!

I ran hard, with Dave close behind. I got in another couple of shots, but the girl was fast and agile, taking every corner that she could to avoid the blasts that would stun her.

"Lock down the doors!" I commanded.

Around two more corners, I found her, desperately trying to pry open a door. She turned at the sound of our arrival and I could see tears on her face – she was scared.

"Please – don't stun me, I give up..."

I stunned her – I was not falling for any of her tricks.

* * *

 ** _The Brig_**

I stared at the young girl in the cage.

"You were willing to let my daughter die – why should I let you live?" I growled.

The young girl looked up at me from her place on the floor. She had just regained consciousness and was fighting her bindings that pinned her arms behind her.

"I had to get back to _my_ family..."

I had to give her that... I would have done the same thing in her position. Would I have put another girl at risk to escape? Yes, I would.

"Still – you were willing to kill and that was unacceptable."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"We are still considering that..."

"So I have to stay in here?" The girl asked, looking fearful at the prospect.

"You have proved that you can't be trusted with the soft touch – so..."

I felt bad about it, but I left the girl sobbing and alone.

* * *

"So, what do we do with her?"

"She can't stay on Atlantis, so she will go to the Beta site – there she will be held securely until we decide on her final fate. She may come in handy as bait, for instance..."

"Bait?" I exclaimed. "You would use an eight-year-old as bait?"

"Yes, Mindy – remember she left you daughter to die..." Colonel Sheppard reminded me.

"I know – but..."

"It is reprehensible to use a child like that, but she is no child, she is an enemy combatant willing to kill," Mr Woolsey interjected.

"Yes, she is," I agreed.

"I know that we all have feelings, and fighting children; putting them at risk, is against everything that we stand for, but if necessary..." Mr Woolsey continued.

"Okay, you have made your point, Mr Woolsey," I growled, still unhappy at the thought.

* * *

 ** _Four days later_**

"Hold up!"

I turned as my own Anne-Marie came running down the steps towards the Stargate – she looked pissed. She strode straight towards her doppelganger and stopped a mere two feet away. They glared at each other for a moment before my Anne-Marie spoke.

"I owe you this – you fucking bitch!"

Then my daughter put all her strength into a punch that laid the other girl out on the floor.

"Fucking cheap imitation!" She said as she walked away.

I just stared after her, a little stunned by her behaviour but also very, very proud.


End file.
